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Economic security? You are in charge |
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By Tom Bengtson
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 |
Everyone wants economic security.
 Faith
and the Workplace
Tom Bengtson
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In the old days, that meant landing a job with one of the major companies. Employment in the Fortune 500 meant work for life, health insurance and a good pension.
But that’s not the way it is anymore. Big companies lay people off all the time. And it isn’t just the newbies who get let go; people with decades of service to a single company commonly find themselves looking for work after a big company decides to downsize.
Small companies lay people off, too.
With his parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Jesus explains that
we have to be willing to take some risk in order to make the most of
life.
In the parable, the servant who was looking for stability did the
easiest thing — he buried his talent. His fear of losing was so great he
didn’t even try. We know how that ended up. The servants who took risks
and went into the marketplace with their talents were rewarded. They
weren’t looking for stability; they were looking to use what they were
given.
In “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” author Stephen Covey
explains that economic security doesn’t come from your job; it comes
from the talents, skills and gifts you have been given. True financial
independence comes from your ability to think, learn, create and adapt,
he says. Covey is synthesizing the message from Matthew’s Gospel. God
has given us what we need; we just need the courage to use it.
Human potential
What Covey and Matthew both write about is human potential.
Most people have much more than they realize. The way to make the most
of your potential is to think about it, cultivate it, and then actually
use it. Those two servants provide a great example.
A big company offers some people the best opportunity to develop their
potential; a small company offers that to others. But no employer is the
actual source of your financial security.
Covey writes that true financial independence is “not having wealth, but
having the ability to produce wealth.” God gave you that ability. One
of the greatest ways anyone can bring God to the workplace is to make
the most of their ability.
God’s “economic security” plan is great. What a joy to know that your
future is more dependent upon your own actions — which you can control —
than upon your employer’s actions — which you can’t control.
Small business owner Tom Bengtson lives in the Twin Cities and can be reached at
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